Where’s My Vehicle? Part 2

Now that you realize we’re a broker, and that not all brokers are bad, here’s the next important concern many of our shipper clients have brought to our attention:

Two-Day Windows Are Typical – Many of our shippers are looking for an exact pick up and/or delivery date, and while this is understandable here are a few reasons why you should be careful not to put too much emphasis on this factor:

There are thousands of companies transporting vehicles around the United States each day of the week. These carriers are required to maintain logs of their work each day, and commonly not allowed more than 14-hours per workday before needing to take an 8-hour break. “How does this effect my specific pick up or delivery dates?” you ask. Well, consider the following example: John hires Plymouth Auto Transport to ship his car from Miami to Los Angeles, and he wants it picked up on September 20. Plymouth locates a carrier for this lane and completes a check of the company’s licensing, insurance, safety data, and customer or peer reviews. Once the carrier has been determined to meet or exceed the necessary requirements and the customer has approved the final contract, the carrier is dispatched to pick up on 9/20. The hired carrier has a 10-car capacity trailer, and intends on picking up in the Miami area the week of 9/20. Due to (insert dilemma: mechanical breakdown, safety inspection, or even another customer being late) the carrier is forced to take a required 8-hour break before continuing his loading and misses the pick up date. Now, imagine any of these dilemmas could occur on the same trip – pretty difficult to nail down a specific date let alone time of day unless you’re scheduling pick up within 48-hours.

Most carriers are very particular about guarantees, and only a select few, very expensive carriers ever really do and live up to it most of the time. Inexperienced and bait-and-switch brokers live by implying the guarantee as long as there’s a deposit or in absence of supplying you, the shipper, with carrier information.

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